Rooney leads the way for Manchester United on Actim
I have heard some daft things said about stats such as Actim’s. Whilst football statistics have their limits, there is no denying their impartiality.
Ed: Really? There is a case to be made for the bias inherent in their usage, but that might be a different situation altogether.
Currently the top 14 Premiership Actim ratings make very interesting reading for Manchester United fans such as myself! There’s an obvious bias towards Manchester United players, but what is most interesting is that no player from Arsenal or Liverpool makes the top 20 (although Shevchenko, probably the most maligned player in the Premiership right now, is at 21).
|
1 |
wayne rooney | Manchester United | 310 |
| 2 | el-hadji diouf | Bolton Wanderers | 299 |
| 3 | didier drogba | Chelsea | 297 |
| 4 | louis saha | Manchester United | 291 |
| 5 | gareth barry | Aston Villa | 291 |
| 6 | rio ferdinand | Manchester United | 280 |
| 7 | frank lampard | Chelsea | 276 |
| 8 | kevin doyle | Reading | 271 |
| 9 | matthew taylor | Portsmouth | 270 |
| 10 | kanu | Portsmouth | 270 |
| 11 | ryan giggs | Manchester United | 258 |
| 12 | edwin van der sar | Manchester United | 258 |
| 13 | gary neville | Manchester United | 254 |
| 14 | cristiano ronaldo | Manchester United | 243 |
50% of the top 14 players represent United, and we can probably expect Vidic to be joining the party very soon too. Actim ratings are very specific on how they are calculated (with a strong preference towards players that show positive contributions towards team play). There may be many reasons for United’s strong showing in the ratings this season (not least our strong defensive and offensive record this season), but I would like to venture one possible cause for this explosion of form … we sold Ruud !
True Ruud had a glorious record at Manchester United, but the overall improvement in the form of our players cannot be down to suffering less injury than the last two seasons. With Ruud replaced by Saha we are more fluid, quicker passing, and our players are more likely to have a pop at goal. Gone are the days when all roads led to Ruud. The attack is now far more difficult for the opposition to handle and has resulted in improved results from all our attack minded players.
But whilst replacing Ruud may be a primary reason for Manchester United’s improvement this season I would also like to suggest another primary reason - Silvestre being replaced by Vidic and Evra. When these two arrived I heard a chorus of complaints that we were acquiring unnecessary defensive cover when midfield needed addressing. Well looking back it would seem Fergie invested his £12 million very well, and the strengthening in defense that has been the consequence of these purchases is a likely candidate for that extra degree of confidence shown in our strike force.
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Discussion - 6 Responses
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From the same Actim’s list:
Matthew Taylor, ranked 9, score 270
Michael Essien, ranked 52, score 189
Actim’s Methodology as stated on their own website:
-> Assesses a player’s contribution to a winning team, based on points won by the team when he has appeared.
-> Assesses a player’s performance in each game by allocating points for actions that positively contribute to a winning performance such as shots, assists, tackles and clearances.
Let’s say both are equal in the first 2 criteria, in fact for argument’s sake, let’s give Taylor a slight edge over Essien.
-> Allocates points based on time on the pitch (Essien has played every minute of every game)
-> Allocates points for goal scorers (Taylor 4, Essien 3)
Now compare Taylor and Essien. What the fuck is this list?
Im still not sure how this is worked out though? considering Rooney missed a couple games at the start of the season, does that mean he’d be even further a front had he played? I think the Actim stats are great, take a look at this site http://stats.premierleague.com/ it shows how well the boys are really doing on paper, Evra and Vidic have been absolutely great, not to mention Man Utd have three players in the top ten goal scorers: Rooney 8 Saha 8 and Ronaldo 6, this is fantastic! and quite scary if you’re Chelski!
James - how the stats are collected!
PA Sport gathers match data for every Barclays Premiership, Coca-Cola Football League and Bank of Scotland Premiership game. The data is gathered by two methods - real-time match analysis and the study of video footage. The real-time analysis is conducted by ex-professional footballers who report on action at the grounds as it happens. More detailed analysis is obtained by studying videos of the matches.
Azar - it could be the 2nd criteria that causes problems.
Having said that, there’s no denying that the Actim stats are just one way of calculating the best player, and not necessarily the best or most accurate.
And we’re not perfect judges either - we’re very biased ourselves, remember?
I have seen some even claim that Rooney is only top because he is English - these type of statements seem in complete ignorance to how the data is collected and used. There are times when we see only the good or bad in certain players but stats like this should help us to look closer at what is going on.
Na man… Ahmed just look at the whole list sometime, can you explain eighty fucking one points difference and 43 places of difference between the two? I have no problem with Essien being 52 actually. But I have a big big issue with the list for it places someone similar on top of him by a huge margin. Leave Taylor man, take Sheva so that you wouldn’t think Im being biased, how the fuck can Sheva be 21 and Essien be fiffffftyyyy-fucking-two haha? Samjha day bhai…. :p